As information technologies evolve, various wireless communication technologies are providing users with convenient access to services and/or network connectivity. Many WLAN technologies are proposed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802 standard organization. Groups related to the 802.11 family of standards are developing and commercializing standards that relate to quality of service (QoS) improvement, access point protocol, security enhancement, wireless management, etc.
Recently, 802.11a/g increased wireless speed to 54 Mbps with the introduction of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) technology. A link speed improvement came with 802.11n presenting users with single stream links up to 150 Mbps. Furthermore, 802.11ac brought with it the possibility of link speeds around 866 Mbps on a single spatial stream with wider channels (160 MHz) and higher modulation orders.
However, WLAN devices currently being deployed in diverse environments can provide frustratingly slow data traffic in some circumstances. For example, a dense scenario, such as trying to check email via a public Wi-Fi at a busy airport, can provide a negative user experience. A new IEEE 802.11ax WLAN standard is being developed that seeks to improve WLAN performance to better support a variety of applications such as video, cloud access, and offloading.
Thus, solutions for improving WLAN communication efficiency as well as for balancing load are desired to support environments such as wireless corporate offices, outdoor hotspots, and dense residential settings.